Mom convicted for girl’s ‘murder’ granted bail

CHENNAI: Taking a sympathetic view of the situation of a woman whose attempt to die by suicide along with her elder daughter resulted in the latter’s death and her being convicted on murder charge, the Madras High Court suspended the life sentence awarded to her and granted conditional bail.

The petition filed by life convict Parameswari seeking to suspend her sentence and grant bail was listed before a division bench comprising Justice SS Sundar and Justice Sunder Mohan.

According to her counsel VR Kamalanathan, Parameswari’s husband – since deceased – was an alcoholic who did not support the family, which forced her to avail of a loan from a women self-help group to meet family expenses. However, she was unable to repay the money.

Finding herself in a helpless situation, Parameswari decided to die by suicide along with her elder daughter by consuming poison. While her daughter died, Parameswari survived the attempt. Based on her husband’s complaint, the Kallakurichi police registered a case against her under IPC 302 (murder) and 309 (suicide attempt). The 3rd Additional District and Sessions Judge, Kallakurichi, sentenced Parameswari to life imprisonment.

Referring to the famous Tamil folklore, ‘Nallathangal’, the advocate said she was forced to borrow money to meet household expenses. Parameswari was not able to repay it due to lack of support from the family, and was pushed to end her life due to helplessness, said the advocate, seeking bail for her.

Taking note of the submission, the bench said it was an unfortunate case where a mother of three was accused of murdering her elder daughter.

“This court finds that there is no intention to commit murder,” wrote the bench in the order and suspended her life imprisonment. The bench then directed her to appear before the trial court on the first working day of every month and granted her bail.